Susan Collins says she intends to vote 'yes' on Kavanaugh confirmation
Susan Collins says she intends to vote 'yes' on Kavanaugh confirmation
By Adam Shaw
Published 5 mins ago
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on Friday said she intends to vote in favor of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation -- a crucial vote that likely secures Kavanaugh's confirmation to the nation's highest court.
"I will vote to confirm Judge Kavanaugh," she said on the Senate floor.
She said the confirmation had resembled a "caricature of a gutter-level political campaign" and criticized Democrats for announcing their opposition to Kavanaugh before his name was even announced. She also criticized outside groups for distorting Kavanaugh's record and "over-the-top rhetoric."
As she began her speech, she was interrupted by protesters urging her to vote "no." The Senate was flooded by protesters in the days leading up to the vote, with activists hounding Republicans and urging them to vote against Kavanaugh's confirmation, citing decades-old sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh.
She dismissed claims that Kavanaugh would be a partisan judge, noted he had ruled in favor of parts of ObamaCare and ruled against a Bush-era terror conviction. She also said she was assured that Kavanaugh would not overturn Roe v Wade -- the 1973 decision that found a constitutional right to abortion. She also rejected concerns by Democrats about his temperament and that he was out of the judicial mainstream.
Collins made her announcement on the floor of the Senate hours after the chamber voted 51-49 to advance Kavanaugh's nomination to a final vote on Saturday evening. Collins was one of four key undecided senators who were closely watched for how they would vote. Collins -- along with Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., voted to invoke cloture on the nomination earlier Friday. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, voted "no," in a move suggesting she may vote against Kavanaugh on Saturday.
With a 51-49 majority in the Senate, Republicans can't afford more than one defection if all Democrats were to vote together. A Manchin vote for Kavanaugh, though, would give Republicans some cushion. A source familiar with the lobbying efforts to confirm Kavanaugh told Fox News before Collins' announcement that the White House believes it has the votes to confirm Kavanaugh.
The source said that the White House believes Murkowski will ultimately be a "no," but Manchin, Collins and Flake will all vote "yes."
Kavanaugh’s nomination was embroiled in a controversy that gripped the nation after multiple women made sexual assault allegations originating from his time in high school and college. The most prominent allegation was from California professor Christine Blasey Ford, who said that Kavanaugh assaulted her at a high school party. That allegation resulted in a high-stakes Senate Judiciary hearing last week where both Ford and Kavanaugh testified.
Democrats said the allegations were credible and deserved a full investigation, while Republicans accused Democrats of using uncorroborated allegations to scuttle or delay the nomination -- leading to a stream of angry flashpoints between lawmakers. The accusations eventually led to President Trump ordering an FBI investigation. Republicans who had seen the FBI’s report said the FBI had produced no credible corroboration of the allegations.
On those accusations, Collins said the Senate would be "ill-served in the long-term if we abandon the presumption of innocence and fairness, as tempting as it may be." She pointed to what she saw as inconsistencies and lack of corroboration in Ford's story and said they fail to meet the "more likely than not" standard. She also said that those trying to defeat Kavanaugh's nomination "cared little if at all" about Ford's well being.
Collins also made reference to allegations by Julie Swetnick that Kavanaugh drugged girls and was present during gang rapes.
"This outlandish allegation was put forth without any credible supporting evidence and simply parroted public statements of others," she said. "That such an allegation can find its way into the Supreme Court process is a stark reminder of why the presumption of innocence is so ingrained in our American conscience."
Protesters clashed with Republican lawmakers in an effort to sway their votes, and initially appeared to have some success. Flake demanded the limited FBI investigation last week after being cornered in an elevator by screaming protesters moments before a Senate Judiciary Committee vote to recommend Kavanaugh’s nomination.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the vote was "a pivotal day for us here in the Senate."
"The ideals of justice that have served our nation for so long are on display," he said, calling the last two weeks a "disgraceful spectacle."
But Democrats had pointed to not only the sexual assault allegations, which they described” but also questions about Kavanaugh’s temperament during the hearing last week and whether he had lied about his drinking during high school and college, and what certain references in his high school yearbook meant. They also sought to paint him as a justice that would swing the court deeply to the right.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, accused Kavanaugh of being evasive in his answers during his confirmation hearings on key topics. He said his views are “deeply at odds with the progress America has made in the last century of jurisprudence and at odds with what most Americans believe.”
Fox News' Alex Pappas, Chad Pergram, John Roberts and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.
Adam Shaw is a reporter covering U.S. and European politics for Fox News.. He can be reached here.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sus...h-confirmation
GEORGE H. W. BUSH PRAISES SEN SUSAN COLLINS FOR HER ‘POLITICAL COURAGE AND CLASS’
October 5, 2018
Virginia Kruta
Former President George H. W. Bush took to Twitter on Friday — for the first time in months — to offer praise and support to his longtime friend, Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
“Political courage and class. I salute my wonderful friend and her principled leadership,” Bush’s tweet read.
George Bush
@GeorgeHWBush
.@SenatorCollins — political courage and class. I salute my wonderful friend and her principled leadership.
1:03 PM - Oct 5, 2018
Just prior to Bush’s tweet, Collins had announced her plan to vote in favor of Supreme court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation.
As part of her lengthy statement from the Senate floor, Collins was very critical of Senate Democrats and special interest groups who had made up their minds about Kavanaugh long before any accusations were made against him, some voicing their opposition before they even knew the identity of the nominee.
The Maine senator also went through a litany of cases she had discussed with Kavanaugh in an attempt to convince people that she took her responsibility regarding “advice and consent” seriously.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/10/05/ge...ins-kavanaugh/